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Middle Eastern Realities

McCain’s Wrong Again

February 7, 2011 — budsimmons

McCain’s Wrong Again

Richard Kantro

If the
policies themselves of the Obama administration haven’t yet made you dizzy, then
perhaps its contradictory characterizations, from within and without — now that
the 2012 campaign, make no mistake about it, has begun in earnest — will do the
job for you.

There’s John Sidney McCain, just four
short days ago proclaiming that, Obama having molted, he is now more
malleable:

Speaking with Bloomberg Television a
day after a private meeting with President Obama, McCain said he could picture
working with Obama on several issues going forward.

“I think there’s a number of issues
we could work on together, and I think it’s pretty clear that the president has
really pivoted to a much more centrist position, which I think makes it much
more for us easier to work with him,” McCain said. (See story here; other stories hereand here.)

That old hero’s old bipartisan urge
is as strong as ever. And to be fair, Mr. Obama has praised Senator McCain
sometimes, too. Take this demure pearl from January 19, 2009, for example,
which then-President-Elect Obama disgorged right before flubbing the oath of
office:

“It has not been a quest for fame or
vanity that has driven this man. It has not been the need to compromise for
politics’ sake that has shaped his distinguished career,” Obama said in a . . .
serious tone talking about McCain.” It is rather a pure and deeply felt love of
his country that comes from the painful knowledge of what life is like without
it.”

[snip]

“John is not known to bite
his tongue,” Obama said with a smile, “and If I’m screwing up, he’s going to let
me know. And that’s how it should be because a presidency is just one branch of
a broader government by and for the people.” (Story here.)

But of course, that was four long,
whole days before the new President was to put Senator McCain resoundingly in
his place — before lots of other members of Congress — with his famous, ornery
put-down, the conversation-stopping stunner: “I won.” (Story here.) (And by the way, that
branch-of-government business still puzzles Obama’s good friend, Senator
Schumer.)

So
why does the President have to go and once again flummox Senator McCain, and
us? After all, we just got comfortable with McCain becoming comfortable. Then,
before complaining that he needed to wear a jacket on Super Bowl Sunday, Mr.
Obama ruined everything, bursting the centrist fantasy, by telling an eager Bill
O’Reilly,

[OBAMA]: And now our focus is not on
refighting the battle of the last two years…

O’REILLY: So you’re not moving to the
center?

OBAMA: I
haven’t — I didn’t move to…

O’REILLY: You haven’t moved anywhere?
You’re the same guy?

OBAMA: I’m the same guy. My practical
focus, my common-sense focus right now is how to we out-innovate, out-educate,
out-building, out-compete the rest of the world? How do we create jobs here in
the United States of America? How do we make sure that businesses are thriving?
But how do we also — making sure that ordinary Americans can live out the
American dream? (See story and Bill O’Reilly feeding the President his lines in
the full interview here; quotes begin at
7m30s.)